Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalms 139:13-16)
In this psalm, David contemplates the omnipotence and omniscience of God and, understandably, stands in awe of God’s greatness. As the creature before his Creator, David praises God for man having been “fearfully and wonderfully” made. Briefly, let’s just consider one organ of our body to see how its complexity and intricacy attests to this notable fact. Although the brain consists of only about three pounds of matter, it has more electrical connections than all electrical connections in the world in their totality. The brain has approximately ten billion neural cells. Each of these cells has an additional 10,000 to 100,000 neural fibers called dendrites. Consequently, the brain has between 10 to the 14 thpower and 10 to the 15 th power electrical connections. In other words, it has 100 trillion to 1000 trillion connections. David, according to the KJV, uses the phrase, “my soul knoweth right well”. Using today’s vernacular, he is saying that this is a “no brainer”, that is, the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
No wonder Paul declares in Romans 1:20 that those who deny the very existence of God are “without excuse” since “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”.Next, David proclaims that even when he was still in his mother’s womb and not yet completely formed God did behold his “substance”. From conception, God watches with interest his ultimate creation. We have been created for only one purpose. One popular writer speaks of the “purpose-driven life”. Solomon declared what that purpose was over three thousand years ago:
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear (reverence) God, and keep his
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man”. (Eccl. 12:13)
By inspiration, David utters an unusual phrase, “in thy book”. He further states that all his “members”, that is, body parts were “written” in this “book” even before they were completely formed. What does this all mean? What is this “book”? Today’s scientists can answer this question for us. We now know that the blueprint for our body’s development is contained in an extremely complex and inexplicable molecule called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Carl Sagan, the famous evolutionist of television’s Cosmos series, gave some interesting facts concerning this incredible molecule. He said that if the data or information contained within just one DNA molecule could be transcribed into the written format of a book, then it would amount to 4000 books of 500 pages length each. Furthermore, since we have approximately 100 trillion cells in our body and each cell contains DNA, then that would be enough books to completely fill the Grand Canyon over 75 times. The Grand Canyon has a volume capacity of 1000 cubic miles.
Back in 1953, Crick and Watson discovered DNA’s structure to be that of a double-helix. This shape is essentially a twisted ladder form. The “rungs” of this “ladder” are composed of over three billion nucleotides. Additionally, the DNA molecule itself is tightly coiled. According to Carl Sagan, just one DNA molecule if unwound and linked end to end would be approximately 7 feet in length. As we have already pointed out, the body has over 100 trillion cells. This means that if all the DNA molecules in a person’s body were unwound and linked together, then it would be able to reach from the Earth to the moon over 500,000 times. The moon is about 240,000 miles from the Earth. With all this said, we now come to perhaps the evolutionist’s most mystifying and perplexing dilemma of all life’s anomalies. Namely, how did all this data or information manage to be encoded into the DNA molecule to begin with?
In accordance with evolutionary thought, the data must have come into being by only naturalistic processes. One can only imagine atoms bumping into each other billions and billions of times until they somehow miraculously formed into this mind-boggling molecule known as DNA. Since DNA requires at least 75 pre-existing proteins to function, and since proteins can only be made by instructions given by DNA, evolutionists find themselves attempting to build the temple of Darwin on a veritable foundation of quicksand.
Nearly four thousand years ago, God asked Job this very question in Job 38:36.
“Who hath put wisdom (DNA) in the inward parts?”
Of course, the answer is God himself.
DNA is found in every single living organism from the one-celled protozoan to the mighty Redwood tree. God desires that everyone would someday come to the same realization as the poet when he said, “only God can make a tree”.